Just call me Rifflandia

09.30.10

Ahhh to be nestled in Victoria’s palm-sized cluster of old buildings, bricks, screaming seagulls, ocean smells, and happy human creatures on a weekend such as Rifflandia. Music looks so darn good on this city and the 3rd annual Rifflandia Music Festival had Victoria glowing and shimmering for 4 amazing days and we never wanted it to end. Jets were extremely honoured and psyched to have shared the Market Square stage on Friday night with the Zolas, Maurice, Yukon Blonde and Gord Downie. Phillips Rifflandabrau was flowing, everyone seemed to be smiling all the time and the vibe was just right for a sweet night of rock and roll. Mark Lavoie, the nimble bass player from Maurice, successfully took the rock vibe up a notch when he executed a glorious leap off of the PA (he is limping around on a large, plumb-coloured ankle these days but my god it was worth it). Adam’s smaller backwards jump off of his monitor during our set was also slightly glorious while it was happening, but he flubbed the landing and fell back into the drum kit. I kind of loved it when that happened.

Other glorious things that happened at Rifflandia:
–Seeing our excruciatingly talented friends in Calico Mountain put the crowd in a warm, alt-country trance at the Upstairs on Thursday night.
–Putting my neck out at the Chali 2na show at the Phillips Brewery tent on Saturday because those beats were inspiring serious head-bobbing by all in attendance. Useless to fight it.
–My friend Garfield tapping me on the shoulder as we jumped up and down during the awesome climax of Hey Rosetta!’s powerful set to tell me that they should change their name to “Rosetta”. I quite disagree, for the record. But it was strangely hilarious at the time and was a classic Garfield manoeuvre.
–Using our Rifflandia wristbands to get 20% off our much-needed and very resuscitating brunch at the lovely Lucy’s in the Square on Sunday. The strips of bacon were cooked INSIDE the waffles, people. INSIDE!

Man, it was all just so bloody fun and inspiring. We are very honoured to be a part of it all, and proud to be Victoria dwellers. I’ve been trying for weeks now to think of a way to combine the words Antonia and Rifflandia…but nothing seems to work. So just call me Rifflandia. –AFS

(Black and white photos below by Casey Bennett and colour photos by Jasmin Jackson. More to come!)